Wakabayashi Haruko. The Seven Tengu Scrolls: Evil and the Rhetoric of Legitimacy in Medieval Japanese Buddhism

University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012. — 224 р. — ISBN 978-0-8248-3416-6h e mythological creature known as tengu has had a long and complicated history in Japan. Th e earliest known reference to tengu in Japan is found in the eighth-century Nihon shoki (T h e Chronicles of Japan). Th e word “tengu” originated in China, where tian gou, as its literal meaning “celestial dog” suggests, refers to a comet or an animal.2 Th e tengu popularly known in Japan today have beaks or long noses, wings, and human bodies, and are of t en disguised as yamabushi (mountain ascetics). Yamabushi themselves worship tengu as guardians of the mountains, where much of the mountain ascetics’ religious training takes place. Festivals honoring tengu are held at various temples throughout the country, many of which are located in or near mountains and are centers of shugendō, the order of mountain ascetics.
In traditional Japanese folktales, tengu are usually depicted as forest spirits or deities. They can be mischievous (kidnapping children fromvillages) or comical (playing tricks on people who wander into the moun-tains). Sometimes they are outwitted by humans. In a popular folktale, a tengu is fooled by a child into trading his treasured kakuremino (a straw raincoat that grants its wearer invisibility) for an ordinary bamboo tube that the child claims is a telescope. Tengu also are known for their super-natural powers, and unusual phenomena are attributed to them. When a tree in the forest unexpectedly falls, it is referred to as a tengu daoshi (tengu knockdown), inexplicable laughter heard in the woods is called tengu warai (tengu laughter), hail is known as tengu tsubute (tengu stones), and a sud-den gust is a tengu kaze (tengu wind).3 Studies of tengu date back to the work of Tokugawa (1603–1868) scholars Ogyū Sorai, Hiraga Gennai, and Hirata Atsutane, and novelist Takizawa Bakin. During the Meiji (1868–1912), philosopher and folklorist Inoue Enryō wrote the Tengu-ron (The Tengu Theory) as part of his series of studies on Japanese demons and goblins. In 1908, M. W. de Visser con-tributed an article on tengu in English to the Asiatic Society of Japan. These and more-recent publications by Chigiri Kōsai are the most comprehensive studies available on tengu.
In his “Yama no jinsei” (Life of the Mountains) and other works, Yanagita Kunio grouped tengu with other legendary forest creatures such as yama otoko (mountain men), yama onna (mountain women), and foxes, all of which are linked to strange occurences in the mountains.4 Yanagita was primarily interested in the development of folk beliefs in the life and history of mountain people. He suggested that tengu were one of several images of mountain dweller created by villagers. Miyake Hitoshi, Miyamoto Kesao, and Carmen Blacker have mentioned tengu in relation to mountain wor-ship, shugendō, and yamabushi.5 Scholarly works on tengu, primarily by folklorists and scholars of popu-lar religion, have been attempts to define the origins and characteristics of tengu as they appear in folk tales and beliefs. However, in an effort to define tengu, scholars have overlooked the social and historical significance of the wide variety of representations of tengu and its transformations. In addi-tion, very few historians have deemed mythical creatures such as tengu wor-thy of serious study. Most of the previously mentioned images of tengu that prevail in modern Japanese folk tradition are creations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, or later. The earlier medieval period, however, presents tengu quite differently. Tengu assume surprisingly diverse forms in Buddhist didactic literature, histories, war chronicles, diaries, popular and court lit-erature, and narrative scroll paintings. Tengu appear not only as mountain creatures and comets, but also as vengeful spirits that seek to bring chaos to anyone who caused them suffering, or as enemies of Buddhism who defy orplague Buddhist priests and mislead people with their magic tricks. They also appear as Buddhist priests who failed to achieve nirvana and so were relegated to the “realm of tengu” for their conceit and worldly attachment.
What, then, are tengu? Instead of attempting to define these mythological creatures for which there clearly exists no single identity, this book will ex-plore through them the world in which they were created.